Being a critic can be a difficult business, not to mention being the one critic that some Chicago theaters say they will no longer invite to review their shows.

Hedy Weiss is the longtime theater and dance critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and a regular on-air contributor to WTTW-Ch. 11's "Chicago Tonight." In the last week, a petition calling on theaters to stop inviting Weiss to productions in the wake of her June 13 review of "Pass Over" at Steppenwolf Theatre has garnered more than 3,500 signatures.

The petition at Change.org was created by a group of local artists calling itself the Chicago Theater Accountability Coalition, which claims 70 of the city's 200-some theaters have agreed not to offer Weiss complimentary tickets to review a show (part of a longstanding and common arrangement between theaters and arts presenters and members of the media covering their work, including the Tribune). After suggesting the names of those theaters would be released this week, co-founder Sasha Smith said Thursday her group is not planning to release the list because "at this point it is just already public knowledge (which theaters stand with the coalition), and the list keeps growing and expanding day by day, so at this point it's sort of a moot point to release one specific list."

Some theaters have posted public statements about their positions on the controversy. Steep Theatre representatives announced on Facebook they will suspend offering complimentary tickets to Weiss, reversing a decision theater leadership made more than a month ago when they were asked by members of the arts community to stop inviting her to their productions. Artistic Director Peter Moore said the company revisited the issue after the "Pass Over" review and determined "it's a stance that we felt we needed to take." He added that the theater may reconsider its position if Weiss responds to the criticism.

On its Facebook page, the Broken Nose Theatre posted a link to the petition and said it already has a policy of "not inviting any critic who utilizes their reviews to unapologetically espouse and propagate racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted and malicious views."

But according to two sources in the Chicago theater community who asked not to be named, the theater coalition, known as ChiTAC, made repeated phone calls and sent emails to local theaters asking that they join the petition. Some theaters reportedly felt pressured to do so. Smith said the coalition's main course of action was writing letters and the movement "has always been about love, respect and protection."

"We don't want to fracture this community. We want it to be as strong as it possibly can (be) for every member of this community. We want to build this community up and continue these hard conversations. If there's any pressure, or rather if anyone is feeling pressure, it's because these conversations are hard, they're difficult to have and we have to look at ourselves internally and ask, 'Well, what is the right thing for us to do?'"

Weiss has not commented publicly. But Sun-Times Publisher and Editor Jim Kirk, Managing Editor Chris Fusco and Editorial Page Editor Tom McNamee met with Steppenwolf Artistic Director Anna D. Shapiro and Executive Director David Schmitz Tuesday, days after Shapiro and Schmitz said in a statement that Weiss' review "once again revealed a deep-seated bigotry and a painful lack of understanding of this country's historic racism."

Speaking Thursday about the meeting, Kirk said: "We had a productive, wide-ranging discussion about the growing and ever-changing arts scene in Chicago. We remain committed to providing readers with thoughtful and incisive reporting and criticism across this important sector of the city."

On Friday, the Sun-Times published a statement by its editorial board in support of Weiss (“We stand by our critic and a vital Chicago theater scene”). The statement acknowledged that Weiss's review had offended some readers, particularly those in the Chicago theater community: "Could Hedy have been more nuanced in her comments? Should her review of “Pass Over” been edited better? Was it tone-deaf? We are all free to complain, defend and debate." It further acknowledged the paper could do better in finding journalists of color to cover the arts. But, it continued, "Hedy Weiss is a theater critic of integrity who writes from a place of honest good faith." In taking on her detractors, the board took issue with Steppenwolf's statement, which it called "surprising." And although it described the subsequent meeting with the theater as worthwhile, it said that: "Nothing she wrote comes close to what Steppenwolf assessed as 'deep-seated bigotry.'" It said the paper would buy its own tickets to performances to which Weiss was not invited, as necessary.

In a statement Friday, Shapiro and Schmitz said the Sun-Times leadership embraced an invitation to meet with ChiTAC and the League of Chicago Theatres. The Steppenwolf directors described their own meeting with ChiTAC founders as "powerful and urgent."

Weiss, in her review, praised elements of "Pass Over," which is a play by New York playwright Antoinette Nwandu that riffs on "Waiting for Godot" by swapping the usual protagonists for two young black men, who are alternately seduced and terrorized by two white characters, the second of whom is a police officer. The review took issue with Nwandu's choice of villain. Weiss wrote: "No one can argue with the fact that this city … has a problem with the use of deadly police force against African-Americans. But, for all the many and varied causes we know so well, much of the lion's share of the violence is perpetrated within the community itself."

The first public reaction to Weiss' review came from ChiTAC, followed by the letter from Steppenwolf. That "once again" referred to what Shapiro and Schmitz deem Weiss' track record of insensitivity and worse. The folks at ChiTAC also write of what they called Weiss' lengthy pattern of "racism, homophobia, and body shaming found in her reviews."

Weiss' critics point to what they feel are some notable transgressions over the years. These include a 2004 review of Tony Kushner's play "Caroline, or Change," in which she referred to the playwright as writing "in the classic style of a self-loathing Jew"; a 2013 review of a work about the racial profiling of Muslims in which Weiss cited the Boston Marathon bombing and wrote, "What practical alternative to profiling do you suggest?"; and of body-shaming for this, about a recent production of "Mamma Mia!": "Theresa Ham's character-defining costumes make the most of the many 'real women' figures on stage, just as the gold and silver spandex outfits outline the perfect bodies of the terrific chorus dancers."

The Tribune entered the fray on Tuesday, with an editorial that said, in part, "The deal between professional artists and critics is that artists create art and critics critique. Artists don't have to like the reviews, or even read them, but they have to suck it up and take them, assuming they are delivered in good faith, as longtime critic Weiss does. Complain too much, theater people, and you look like crybabies, especially if you also accept praise."

It all has made for many days of conversation in social media for those interested in the city's arts and cultural and journalistic communities.

"It's something that a lot of us in the theater community have talked about for a lot of years, and this 'Pass Over' review kind of was the breaking point for a lot of us," said Bryan Renaud, the 25-year-old Random Acts artistic director and Other Theatre Co. associate artistic director. He said representatives for both theaters signed the ChiTAC petition. "It's kind of hard to say where exactly we go from here, but I think that the fact that there are real institutions that are condemning this behavior for the first time publicly, on Facebook pages ... We've seen responses from many, many big theaters now, so I think that that just shows how much we are changing now, and I think that it's going to force publications to rethink the voices that they give a platform to."

For his part, Second City CEO Andrew Alexander on Monday requested the Sun-Times send an alternate theater critic to review its performances, days after theater reps said in a Facebook post that "Second City has a deep appreciation of the importance of theatrical criticism, and we look forward to being challenged by vibrant, knowledgeable and creative voices in our community."

In its Monday statement, a Second City rep acknowledged the theater "did not take a firm stand" in last week's post.

On its Facebook page, representatives for Writers Theatre said "those who do choose to use language that espouses hate or ignorance will not be invited to attend as guests" of the theater.

The Goodman Theatre had a different response. While theater leadership will "support efforts to engage in a dialogue" with the Sun-Times, it will also continue to offer tickets to the newspaper because "the curtailment of freedom of speech is never acceptable — especially in the theater, which relies on free speech for its very existence."

The Goodman post generated dozens of comments about freedom of the press and the language in Weiss' reviews. Separately, Chicago actor and writer Bear Bellinger wrote an open letter to the Goodman to say he is "not comfortable performing with Hedy in an audience to review me" because of "the sort of language Hedy has used to describe individuals, whether through body shaming or through race and/or ethnicity-based commentary." He said if Weiss is in the audience, theater leadership should "make arrangements to have an understudy go on for that performance."

Tribune theater critic Chris Jones also reviewed "Pass Over" and liked it, giving it three stars (out of four) and calling it a "hugely promising play."

He told the Tribune: "Although this issue appears to be the Chicago theater and its relationship with a critic of some socially conservative views, I believe it really is about the city's ongoing paralysis over gun violence, which is touching all of us. The play in question here is a searing and highly potent response to that agony and what it is like to live under the stress of constant gun violence. It also made unstinting allegations against the police, which have some justification, given what history has taught us. This is especially true in Chicago. The play had every right to make those charges. We could all do to discuss them.

"But anyone who writes such an incendiary play — wherein the police are, by symbolic implication, murderers — and any theater that produces it, should not try to silence strong oppositional reactions. It should welcome them. The solution to this problem requires us all to come together.

"I was stunned by the Steppenwolf statement accusing a critic they have welcomed with open arms for 25 years or more of long-standing, deep-seated bigotry. While all critics make mistakes, and say things poorly or insensitively at times, that is not the person I know. There have been thousands of reviews, mostly of peerless support for all the various sectors of the Chicago theater. Judgments must be made with all of them in mind."

Two years ago, Jones (along with Weiss) was the target of criticism for his review of another Steppenwolf production called "This Is Modern Art," a play about graffiti artists. The playwrights, Idris Goodwin and Kevin Coval, were not pleased. Goodwin is African-American and Coval is white, but, as head of Young Chicago Authors, founder of the Louder Than a Bomb poetry festival and a teacher in public schools, he is intimately involved with the African-American community.

"What I'm not surprised about is old white people, critics for these dying papers, don't want to celebrate stories about youth culture who have been systematically denied agency," Coval said in response to the show's reviews.

Asked about this current contretemps, Coval said: "This is about culturally white theater spaces and the white critics who preserve systemic inequity. Hedy is just a white person aligned with whiteness, no surprise there. But there are larger issues at play, among them the lack of racial equality and accountability in cultural institutions here and across the country. This is also an indictment of the media for its lack of diverse critical voices. Technology has democratized criticism. There are tons of incredibly smart people writing for various blogs and on social media. We need young critics, and young critics of color, and more and more spaces for their voices and nuanced understanding. The mainstream media needs to seek them out and employ these voices."

Lloyd Brodnax King has been a fixture on the local music and theater scenes for more than 30 years. He is also an educator and an African-American and, though he has not seen "Pass Over," he said, "These critics of the critic are giving Hedy way more power than she has ever had before.

"You can agree or disagree with Hedy's opinions, as you may with any critic. You can even be disappointed in her so-called lack of sensitivity, if that's the way you see things. But I'm disappointed at Bellinger's and Steppenwolf's responses. What? They couldn't write a letter to the editor? No, they're unable to resist joining the new hysteria — be it on the left or the right. Bellinger and Steppenwolf are all 'We won't play with you anymore because you called us names.' It's infantile, but we live in a slam-the-door climate.

"Whites created the socio-economic system of race, which privileges whites over people of color — lethally so. And it's up to white folks to recognize this and to dismantle America's racist system as it hurts everyone, even the beneficiaries. So I appreciate Steppenwolf's sentiment, just not their response. In this case my empathy is with Hedy."